CSS Webb
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{{Infobox ship image | Ship image =File:CSS Webb.jpg | Ship caption = An engraving of the burning of the CSS Webb is one of the few known images of the vessel }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = Confederate States | Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|Confederate States of America|naval}} | Ship name = Webb | Ship namesake = William Henry Webb | Ship operator = *Confederate States Army | Ship builder = William Henry Webb, New York CityGaines, W. Craig. Encyclopedia of Civil War shipwrecks. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-3274-6}}, p.75 | Ship original cost = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 1856 | Ship sponsor = | Ship christened = | Ship completed = | Ship acquired = May 1861 | Ship commissioned = 1865 | Ship recommissioned = | Ship decommissioned = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship renamed = | Ship reclassified = | Ship refit = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship homeport = | Ship motto = | Ship nickname = | Ship honors = | Ship fate = Burned to avoid capture, April 1865 | Ship notes = | Ship badge = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship type = Side-wheel River Steamer | Ship tonnage = | Ship displacement = 655 tons | Ship tons burthen = | Ship length = | Ship beam = | Ship height = | Ship draft = | Ship depth = | Ship propulsion = | Ship speed = | Ship range = | Ship endurance = | Ship boats = | Ship troops = | Ship complement = | Ship armament = | Ship armor = | Ship notes = }} |
File:The Webb Running the Blocade, by William Lindsey Challoner.jpg
File:USS Indianola blown up.jpg destroys the Indianola, there is also the Webb and the Black Terror.]]
CSS Webb, a 655-ton side-wheel steam ram, was originally built in New York City in 1856 as the civilian steamship William H. Webb. She received a Confederate privateer's commission at New Orleans in May 1861, but was instead employed as a transport until January 1862. Converted to a "cotton clad" ram by the Confederate Army, thereafter served on the Mississippi and Red Rivers. On February 24, 1863, under the command of Captain Charles Pierce, she participated in the sinking of the Federal ironclad {{USS|Indianola|1862|6}}. Webb was transferred to the Confederate Navy in early 1865.Scharf, 1886, pp. 357-358Stern, 1962, p. 133
On April 23–24, 1865, under the command of Charles S. Read, Webb broke through the Federal blockade at the mouth of the Red River, Louisiana, and made a dramatic run down the Mississippi toward the Gulf of Mexico. After eluding several United States Navy vessels and passing New Orleans, she was confronted by the powerful steam sloop {{USS|Richmond|1860|6}}. Rather than face the veteran ship's broadside, the Webb was run ashore and destroyed by her crew.Stern, 1962, pp. 140-141
See also
References
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Sources
- {{cite book |last=Stern |first=Philip Van Doren |title=The Confederate Navy |publisher=Doubleday & Company |year=1962 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bAUJAQAAIAAJ |ref=stern}}
- {{cite book |title=History of the Confederate States Navy |last=Scharf |first=John Thomas |author-link=John Thomas Scharf |year=1886 |ref=scharf }}
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{{CSN cottonclad rams}}{{List of Ships Built by William H. Webb}}{{1865 shipwrecks}}
{{coord missing|Louisiana}}
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Category:Cottonclad rams of the Confederate States Navy
Category:Ships built by William H. Webb
Category:Shipwrecks of the American Civil War
Category:Shipwrecks of the Mississippi River
Category:Maritime incidents in April 1865
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